Frequently, drivers in motor vehicles become incapacitated or otherwise unable to safely drive while driving. In such a situation, the driver often loses control of his or her motor vehicle and collides with another motor vehicle or leaves the road. In either instance, the driver could be seriously injured and could cause the injury or death of another.
Many attempts have been made to address these problems. For example, motor vehicles now come standard with emergency tail lights to alert other vehicles that the motor vehicle or the driver is disabled. However, one drawback of such systems is that the switch only illuminates the blinking emergency tail lights—the switch does not stop or otherwise slow the motor vehicle.
There are also a variety of means of cutting off the flow of fuel to the motor vehicle engine. These so-called “kill switches” are used in, and controlled by, some anti-theft systems to prevent theft of the motor vehicle. However, such “kill switches” are typically not used to stop the motor vehicle in the event of an emergency. Moreover, such “kill switches” do not include visible or audible warnings to other motorists to indicate that the driver may not have control of the motor vehicle and that the motor vehicle has been disabled.
Yet another system includes a locator device that is monitored by a centralized monitoring system. When assistance is required, the vehicle is located by the monitoring system and assistance is dispatched. One drawback of this system, however, is that the vehicle owner must subscribe to a service to participate in the monitoring system.
In my prior patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,246, I disclosed a system that was manually actuatable to disable a motor vehicle. However, drivers may not always have the time or presence of mind to disable their own motor vehicle. That is, in many situations, the driver may have no warning before becoming unable to drive or the driver may not be aware that he or she is unable to drive. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system for disabling a vehicle automatically based on data collected from a driver.